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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Turning Left For Less 2025 – Our Year in Travel

Turning left for less will be taking a break over Christmas for a few days from today. We will, as usual, be publishing our selection of the best Christmas aviation-themed new and old favourite videos over the next few days. TLFL will be back on 27 December. 

All our regular contributors and the team would like to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to submit a reader review; it’s been a great help to share more travel stories. 

A Message from Eugene and Katrina

We’ve really enjoyed running TLFL this year. It’s been busy, occasionally chaotic, but hugely rewarding, especially with everything that’s been happening in the world of points and miles. The changes to the British Airways Executive Club have certainly kept things interesting (and sometimes frustrating), and we’re genuinely curious to see how they change the way we travel, and how our readers rethink their own strategies as a result.

On the status front, Eugene managed to retain BA Gold, while Katrina reached Gold for the first time. Amusingly, and maybe highlighting our love for travel, our three-year-old son also managed to earn Gold status this year at the ripe age of two. This has led to several double-takes and comments from BA staff, some of whom said he’s the youngest Gold member they’ve ever met. He, of course, remains completely oblivious to just how good he has it.

The second half of the year was a little quieter on the travel front, as we welcomed our second baby in July. That said, we still managed to squeeze in some great trips throughout the year. We visited Oman and stayed at Jumeirah Muscat Bay (previously reviewed by Michele), a country we absolutely loved and would happily return to. During this trip we flew Qatar and had our first experience in a Qsuite Quad.

Qatar Qsuite Quad

We also spent time in Doha, staying at the Ritz-Carlton Doha (review found here), and fitted in a couple of trips to Portugal and Venice along the way. Eugene also managed to get away to Dubai, Tuscany, Menorca and skiing in the Dolomites, making the most of any opportunity to travel when it came up.

Jumeirah Muscat Bay Oman

Looking ahead to next year, we’ve already got plenty to look forward to. We’re heading back to the Maldives in a few weeks, staying at two fantastic islands that we’ll be reviewing, and off to South Africa in April, with both trips booked using companion vouchers. Beyond that, the rest of the year is still very much taking shape, and we’ll see whether those future trips end up being with BA or with other airlines as we adapt to the ever-changing loyalty landscape.

As always, thank you for reading, commenting, and supporting the site; it really does mean a lot. We’re looking forward to another year of travel, reviews, and figuring out the best ways to make points and miles work for all of us.

We would love to hear about our readers’ travel plans and where you may be directing your loyalty in the next year. Leave us comments below.

Warm wishes,

Eugene & Katrina

 

A Message from Michele – TLFL founder and contributor

Wishing all our readers a very merry Christmas and happy holidays. Let’s hope 2025 brings us some great business and first fares!

Well, this year has signalled a big change for many of us with the radical changes to the BA Executive Club. I have already dropped from Gold Guest List to Gold this year, and by next Spring I will be Silver. Part of this is due to my purchase of a holiday home in Spain, where the nearest airport is only served by low-cost airlines. I do sometimes fly BA to Alicante but it is a much longer drive. I have to say I have been pretty impressed with EasyJet, and the North terminal at Gatwick is definitely better than the South in my opinion. My lack of spending with BA was also because I felt it was an extreme change in the amount you needed to spend to get Gold. While the bonuses have made it easier with Gold possible for around £12,000 or even less, I think many people like me took the opportunity to look at other airlines. It felt like the real end of an era as the BA Club had brought people together with a common love of travel and I have met many of my good friends this way.

It was also a big year, as my partner proposed to me on a BA flight while we were flying to Houston for a Texas fly-drive. We were flying in first class using a companion voucher and a Gold Guest List upgrade voucher, which made it a great deal. He had been planning to propose on holiday, but a jokey comment from the crew changed his mind. He decided that, given my entire life has been travel- and aviation-focused, there would be no better place to do it. The whole crew was involved, and the captain came to my seat and said he needed a word with me in the galley. I walked into my partner’s place on one knee with a ring, and almost the whole crew lined up. It was quite the proposal – just as well I wanted to say yes though!

The crew with my now fiancé and me after the proposal

Next year, we are getting married, and that of course means a honeymoon. We managed to book nearly all the flights on Avios and Virgin Points, plus part of the hotel using Hilton points, which helps keep costs down. We are flying with Virgin to New York as I much prefer the Upper Wing experience in business class to BA’s Club. Then we fly on to Antigua and then back for a wedding in St Louis before flying on BA’s new route from there home. 

Other than that I think it will be a quiet year travel wise after all the wedding expense, concentrating on enjoying our place in Spain now we have finished getting it how we want. 

What trips stood out for you this year? Did you get some great bargains or Avios redemptions? Let us know in the comments below! 

 

Icelandair – new video

Icelandair has been introducing new aircraft and seats over the last year. Their new short-haul business class seats are more akin to US first-class domestic seats than to the European middle-seat-free model.

They also have a new Christmas video, which is probably the most random and slightly dark airline video I have seen. It is quite fun to watch, though!

 

Finnair – new video

Finnair are known as Santa’s official airline as Lapland is in Finland. They recently announced that they will be flying to Melbourne, Australia, which is a great opportunity for Avios redemptions and hopefully some reasonably priced business class flights. 

Finnair’s Christmas video is not as good as last year in my opinion but it does show you the new business class seats. It’s all about Santa, seeing that Finnair are his official airline.

 

On the subject of Santa, Finnair had a very magical video for last Christmas – I love the part with the sleigh and the plane at the start particularly!

Apparently, Santa rather enjoys Finnair’s new AirLounge seats as well!

For 2023, there is sweet video:

 

British Airways

Sadly, there are no new Christmas videos from BA this year. However, if you are a bit of an aviation geek or curious about what goes on behind the scenes, they have an interesting video about their winter operations.

In 2023, there was a feel-good look at BA’s Big Little Welcomes initiative that allowed people to write special welcome home messages for others. 

 

 

2021

 

2019

If you want to see how they prepared to stage this event and the rehearsals, here is the full version:

Watch out for some really special new Christmas aviation videos tomorrow and Boxing day. 

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51 comments

  1. A very Happy Christmas to you all and thank you for your reviews and great tips – especially the practicalities of tier point runs!
    From us all here in Hong Kong (ex AMS!!)
    Nigel & Family

  3. Wishing you all st the TLFL team a very merry Christmas and all the very best for 2019 xx

    2. There’s clearly a lot of detail and hard work that goes into your insights Michele so a huge thank you to you and your team for all of your advice to keep us travelling in the style we all deserve! It’s been an awful year but I have a feeling 2022 will be much better, so all the best to you and yours.

  6. Happy Holidays Michele to you and the team.
    Your travel tips and ideas have helped me achieve BA Gold plus I’ve enjoyed seeing all these new ‘ex Europe’ destinations before my actual holidays!.
    Best, Michael

  7. Wishing the team a very happy Christmas and we look forward to a new year of trips.
    Like Michael we too have enjoyed having a pre-holiday visit to various European cities.
    Invaluable tips learnt!

  8. Merry Christmas to the team. TLFL is usually my first read of the day, while I have my tea and toast.

  9. Looks like you’ve gained a tattoo of champagne glass on your left arm during the course of the last year!
    Merry Christmas and best wishes for the new year.
    Howard.

  11. Dear Michele and team,

    Merry Christmas to you all.

    Best wishes for the festive season and the new year.

  12. Wow, you look very nice in red. I wouldn’t mind unwrapping you on Christmas morning ????

  13. Wishing everyone in the Team a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

    Hope to get back into the air more frequently in 2021.

    God bless

  14. Have a brilliant Christmas Michelle and I look forward to my daily dose of travel in 2021. x

  15. Happy Christmas and here’s to fulfilling bookings instead of rearranging them soon! Thanks for all the information.

  17. Merry Christmas to you all!
    Looking forward to better times and fresh adventures in 2021.

  19. To all at TLFL thank you for keeping me well informed and entertained during this challenging year. I wish you all festive cheer and a safe and happy New Year. Fingers crossed that we will all be able to travel again in relative safety in 2021 and beyond.

  20. Thanks to the entire team for a great, if challenging, 2020 worth of content and here’s to much more in ’21 along with my annual “fingers crossed but prepared for letdown” approach to the ‘Win Status’ competition on the 27th

  21. Thanks for all your efforts Michelle, and the effort from the rest of the TLFL team as well! I don’t underestimate how much work it must be to keep this site going. I don’t always agree with what you post, but always agree with you getting the TLFL view out there. Merry Christmas Michelle and to all at TLFR towers. Hope you have a lovely 2022!

  22. Merry Christmas to you all. Thank you for all your help and information over the past challenging year. Hopefully 2022 will be better for all of us, fingers crossed!

  24. Thanks for maintaining your exacting standards despite airlines and hotels wishing we’d simply put up and shut up with cost cutting dressed up as pandemic measures. I have booked Four Seasons Las Vegas in 2022 based on your review.

    1. Thanks James. I just stayed there on Monday night and it’s as good as ever! Didn’t want to leave, especially the amazing bed!

  25. Love the fact that somehow my THANKS message from last year is above. I’ll add this years “YOU’RE AMAZING & DON’T CHANGE A THING” message to accompany it.

    Here’s to, hopefully, a slightly easier year of travel next year and all the content it brings.

    1. Thanks Clayton. It’s because I use last years post as a basis since it already has the older videos. Very lazy I know ????????

  27. Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you and the team. Hopefully things will improve with travel 😀

  28. Merry Christmas Michele and the team.

    Thank you for all the amazing articles this year!

    You made travel a lot easier for all of us overt the last few years!

  29. Happy Xmas Michele and the TLfL Team, from sunny Alicante – thanks for all the tips, alerts and reviews.

  31. Happy Holidays to you all at TLFL. Annette and I have just arrived at the Bel Air Hotel for 5 nights in LA……. BA AmEx 241 and the same avios for F as for J – so F it was on the A380 flight! Magnificent!
    Thank you for all your tips and advice and Im looking forward to more in ’25…..
    Cheers,
    Nigel

  32. Michele, huge congratulations on your news. Wishing you a lifetime of happiness together and thank you for all your advice. We have done Tokyo with BA this year in Club (Barclays upgrade voucher and Avios). Yes it was BA5 so old club but service was great. Came back with QR in Q Suite again on Avios.

    Next year, Virgin upper to Boston on the Neo – first time using UC wing etc based on all your comments. Used Virgin points. Coming back BA Club Suites from Vancouver again Avios and BAPP voucher.

    Thanks again.

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